The Sengoku Festival (An Oda Nobuna No Yabou fanfic)

Chapter 40

It took no less than a whole week for all of the recruits to arrive as well as a substantial reserve of Ashigaru for Yoshiharu and his army that came later half way into the week. In total, an army of 3000 had managed to form at the Oda Capital with Yoshiharu leading it while myself and the Winged Robin had our companies to support him. The army was split into 2000 Ashigaru, Horsemen, and Tanegashima gunners underneath the control of General Yoshiharu, 500 Ashigaru and Gunners under the Winged Ronin, and 500 Ashigaru and Horsemen under myself and my officers.

It meant while one company lacked in one form, the other companies made up for the weakness in one form or another. Reports also came in soon that the Date tried to launch a counter offensive against the Oda cities we had captured but unfortunately it was all I was able to get before being shoveled under more paperwork. Other news included more skirmishes against the Takeda and some minor skirmishing with the Uesugi elsewhere. It meant the Oda were stretched thin in places but at the same time we were simply trying to capture lands of the former Tokugawa and thus once we had done all we could there and garrisoned, we'd likely get moved south to face the Usuegi or get sent back into the center to deal with the Date.

But as I looked out with the Winged Ronin and Yoshiharu over the large army we had, all I couldn't help but wonder was who we would be fighting in the old Tokugawa lands. I had a certain General in my mind at the moment from the Takeda but I could not remember what their name was at the moment.

The Winged Ronin looked at me before he then asked me, "So, the goal is to try and at least keep half of them alive, right?"

Yoshiharu shook his head with a smile. "We'll be lucky if we get any back. Takeda cavalry have an annoying knack of being able to break Ashigaru before they even hit them with their until charge impact."

"Shock tactics." I muttered.

Yoshiharu nodded before he then said, "We make for the Tokugawa lands and our objectives tomorrow. Prepare your men."

Both myself and the Winged Ronin bowed to Yoshiharu before we took our leave to gather our men up for the march to our objective.

The objective being the city of Shiramamoto. In a previous attempt, we had failed to technically reach it before the army I had been in was completely destroyed. Now, with this army and whatever was left of the Spear Donkey and Spear Slayers forces, in theory we could perhaps take the city and then maybe even push on from their into the Takeda lands. From what Yoshiharu spoke of, those two currently were attempting to take and hold the towns of Shirasunai and Shakofurano from the Takeda until we met up with them and pushed onward to take Shiramamato.

And so, within three days, we had our army ready for the march ahead and thus we set out to take the city.

It took us no less than half a week of a long and slow march as we carefully navigated the way to Shiramamoto through the dirt and gravel roads that stretched out from the ruined village of Yakuwara, which had still not been repaired. We camped out in its remains for a night but we soon left the next morning as we headed towards Shiramamoto and along the way, probably about halfway, is when we met the Spear Slayer and the Spear Donkey. From what they still had left, they had been through some rough battles and skirmishes as their men were haggard and tired and from what Yoshiharu had spoke of them, they had gone from a good 1000 man force to a mere 400. It meant that our total numbers were brought all the way up to 3400 men and though I wished more of their men had survived, them being alive with 400 men still would be enough for the job ahead.

And thus once we had collected the two other ronin for our force, we continue on our heading to Shiramamoto as we were told the Takeda would be likely near to Shiramamoto, either attempting to lay came to the city themselves or would be looking out for the Oda armies they figured were close by and that their force was remaining something around 4000 men from the original 6000 they had been at. Looks like the skirmishing and small battles between the Spear Donkey and Spear Slayer had done well to reduce the enemy force done as much as they could given their limited numbers and I was quite positive and brimming with confidence we had a good chance if we played our cards right and smart to beat the Takeda with our small numbers.